If I want to be alone, I stop. I take a piece of black chalk from my pocket and I trace a circle around myself.

In my circle, I am sheltered. No one has the right, or the power, to say a word to me while I am inside. No one has the right or the power to enter it, to touch me, or even to look at me for too long. When I am in my circle, I no longer hear the noises of the street, the oceans waves or the cries of birds. I can remain here, motionless, as long as I want. I dont care about anything that happens around me anymore. The circle isolates me from the outside world and from myself. It is total bliss, it is peace. Inside the circle we cease to feel cold, hunger or pain. Time stops. We plunge into the abstract like a protective dream. We become the centre of the circle. When I want to leave the circle, I simply reach out and break the line. No one can do this but me. No one can break the circle for me from the outside. The miracle of the circle is that it offers us complete security. Since the circle was invented, the world has got better. There are no longer wars, famines or disasters. rime has dropped. If we are overcome by nausea, we encircle ourselves. If someone gets on our nerves, we enter the circle. If a thief breaks into our house at night, we can !uickly enclose ourselves within the circle. If we leave on a long voyage and are tired, we can rest within the circle. If we cannot find the answer to a fundamental !uestion, the circle is the best place to think about it. If death approaches and we dont want to die, we can vegetate in the circle indefinitely. We can never lock two people in the same circle at the same time. Some tried but a circle for two does not e"ist, and we are certain that it never will. There are people who have tried to bring small animals into their circles # dogs, cats, mice # but nothing happened. If there is another living being inside the circle, it doesnt work anymore.

Since people started using the circle regularly, the city has completely changed. ircles are everywhere. There are people who simply sit on the sidewalk or in the middle of the street, closed in their circles. There are those who dont come out for days at a time. In waiting rooms at train stations, we see nothing but people curled up, as if forgotten, in their circles. Its much !uieter now. $t first, it was necessary to have magnetic black chalk to draw the circle. It was rather e"pensive, most people couldnt afford it. %ittle by little, the price dropped and coloured chalks appeared. &inally, they were given out for free in the city halls. Today, no'one needs chalk. It can be drawn using the end of a pencil, a lipstick or even a fingernail. (veryone agrees that the circle presents the ultimate miracle cure. )ere we are, at the end of the century, and no'one is unhappy anymore. *olls show that the inhabitants of the city spend more than one hundred days each year in the circles. They have already completed a census of those who have not left their circles for five years, ten years, even twenty. +ndoubtedly, they have tasted eternity. ,ut Im not bothered by recent rumours saying that the circles conceal a trap, that sometimes we enter it forever. That people are blocked in the circle against their will. It is said that those who live in their circles for ten or twenty years are, in reality, prisoners. It is also said that, for some time now, the ma-ority of circles no longer obey men. It is said that there are many people who, once encircled, discover that they can no longer reopen their cages. $nd that they will never leave again.